So-called curtain airbags are known in vehicle engineering and are widely used. Such a curtain airbag forms an upper and lower edge, and the upper edge is connected to the internal vehicle structure along the side of the interior in the area of the roof rail. When in an undepolyed state, the curtain airbag is folded or rolled around its lower edge. If an accident occurs, namely if there is a side collision or the vehicle rolls over, the curtain airbag is filled with gas and unfolds in front of at least one side window of the vehicle. Following the accident, the curtain airbag has to be removed in a repair facility and has to be replaced by a new one. This naturally gives rise to considerable cost. These devices are irreversibly deployed and are not reused once activated.
A further disadvantage of curtain airbags of the type known is as follows: vehicle safety systems are known which do not only activate safety equipment such as airbags, belt tensioners and similar when the vehicle strikes an obstacle, but may be deployed beforehand, with proximity sensors being provided for this purpose. In particular in the case of side collisions, such systems offer advantages, as in contrast to frontal crashes, there is practically no crumple zone to absorb impact. Because of the above, however, curtain airbags may only be triggered as a result of such proximity sensors if the associated electronic system interprets the incoming signals so as to establish that a side impact will certainly occur.
However, with regard to ideal protection of the vehicle occupants, it would be desirable if curtain airbags could also be activated in a preventative sense, in other words at a relatively early stage of a possible accident, even if there is still the chance that no actual side impact or rollover will occur.
The present invention therefore sets itself the task of creating a safety device which can already be activated at an early point in time, even if it is not yet certain that an accident will occur.